Corporate America has Nothing on these Two Toddlers!

Let’s Talk Shop

Ok so your thinking “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” Well, it’s a very easy or many days not so easy answer! As a mom you are torn thirty direction every twenty minutes of every day. How do I achieve mom of the day status when I am trying to start a small business with my mom and your husband has a large small business that takes him from home up to 9 hours a day 7 days a week…Oh ya and it’s summer break! Let’s not forget I really want to sit down and share with you all we have going on! Well, the struggle is real! LOL! I am obsessed with this saying on so many levels and my family and I use it often via all conversation types! So as you know my mom and I refinish furniture whenever time allows. Well it’s recently gotten real as we now have clients coming to us with requests for specific pieces we currently have on hand or something they are looking for and want us to refinish. This is fantastic I agree but then there are the days were you’ve been focusing on pieces as you have a deadline for three days straight literally coffee in hand sander or brush in other hand or mouth! Another problem only two hands; darn I need a third most days! Anyway, I have a four and five year old that have requests, demands, passions of their own they need me to help nourish. Well, it’s been a juggling act I’m very lucky to have two kids so close in age that adore one another at least 98% of each day! Daily has been a breakfast of substance pancakes, oatmeal, fruit. Then the day begins in the shop and when I say shop I mean my garage that is stacked with shit or as I prefer to tell people it is mom and I’s place of controlled chaos! Country radio is turned on which mom isn’t a fan as I learned just today but she hums to herself most of the time so says it doesn’t bother her😩 This week we turned latex colors of mud puddle and wandering creek into chalk paint! We also got some Rustoleum Country Grey! Now what are we about to tackle? Seems a common question or look we give each other most shop mornings! The kids hit the legos for a bit! This week we had a few pieces that we needed to get started as clients had ordered! Currently we are booked two weeks out to start anything new. When I say this I have to also say mom and I suffer from the real struggle of staying focused and when we can’t feel a pieces we start or work on another happy place piece. These are pieces that aren’t ordered or sold but pieces that make our heart happy and allow us to re-group/re-focus so we can get back to the task at hand! This to us is SO important because if you aren’t feeling a piece it will show in your work. Crap work results in Crabby clients and that is not ok. Honestly, we haven’t had this happen and I’m not being pompus but we have always been this way. If you remember my mom and I had a bakery at one point together and in baking you learn the hard way! YIKES when your cake crumbles because your were in the wrong mindset so you have to re-do! Another thing I’m learning as I’m typically the one that deals with booking of the biz is keeping your clients in the know! I love and so do they love receiving text message updates on their piece and including pictures so they too can see the transformation! Before and after’s are a must. With that being said sometimes I get sooo excited to do a piece I start and an hour later say “oh shit” I forgot a before picture! Well, the pieces we had this week were a dining room table, a living room cabinet, living room dresser turned focal pieces, a patio set, and my fun piece was two wrought iron chairs and table-I had a vision and mom’s was two side tables-she always has visions! So, below I am sharing where we are as of today! The dining room table you will have to wait until it is set up in the homeowners house to see with the legs for transporting purposes but you get the idea. The cabinet it an old piece that had side shelves that slid out but we added a new top on the original laminate top so these will no longer open this still has to be distressed. Living Room dresser turned living room focal piece was done in Rustoleum aged grey and waverly elephant and our made white chalk paint. The patio furniture set we have had and threw many ideas around about but always had our version of Annie Sloan’s Arles latex turned Chalk Paint for the color. The cushions I had and they fit perfect for the table/foot rest we wrapped the foot rests in burlap and added a hole to the table to add an umbrella! The wrought iron chairs were vomit yellow with black wrought iron in rough shape. The table was just 80’s this piece still has to have a bit more paint but I have to share! Mom’s tables while be layered and have a bit of beach feel when completed! They were done in latex wandering creek which we turned to chalk! Now your saying and the kids are where when you did all this?! They bounced around playing school, building zip lines throughout my living room with yarn for their lego guys to go on, to agility training for our two shepherds which they said were amazing at rope jumping! Dinner each night we had as a family so we could talk about our days and then head to the trampoline to jump before bedtime!